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Nissan opened its most advanced paint plant in the world last week in Smyrna, Tenn. The end result is the Leaf’s production will become even greener than before.

This upgrade was needed with the recent additions of the Infiniti JX and Nissan Leaf as well as the future addition of the Nissan Rogue to its Tennessee vehicle assembly lines.

Nissan declared the state-of-the-art facility sets new standards for quality, efficiency and environmental impacts, as it is capable of reducing energy consumption by 30 percent, carbon emissions by 30 percent and volatile organic compound (VOCs) emissions by 70 percent.

The plant uses a three-wet paint process that applies all three paint layers in succession, before the vehicle goes into the oven.

Previous processes required the vehicle to bake in between the primer application and the topcoat layers.

Nissan said the implementation of this new technology reduces energy consumption, cost and emissions while increasing production efficiency.

The 250,000 square-foot footprint paint plant is located adjacent to Nissan’s existing vehicle assembly plant in Tennessee. It replaces Nissan’s previous paint system that has been in service for nearly 30 years.

The plant is Nissan’s “Showcase Project” as part of the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Better Plants Challenge, where Nissan has committed to reducing energy intensity in its three U.S. plants 25 percent by 2020.